Following yesterday’s news of a derailment on the Nanjing Metro, things have been going a little more according to plan elsewhere in China, as a host of new lines have opened recently, adding 700 kilometres to the country’s metro systems in no less than 15 cities.
Most countries have a thing for getting X, Y and Z done by the end of the year. With her metro ambitions, China is no different. And despite the circumstances, 2020 turned out to be quite a bumper year.
As the year came to a close, mainland Chinese cities which opened new metro lines comprised Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Hefei, Nanchang, Ningbo, Qingdao, Shanghai, Taiyuan, Wuhan, Xi’an and Zhengzhou.
18 December was the big day for Chengdu, simultaneously opening four lines to bring the city’s total metro track length to 558 kilometres. One of the lines, Line 9, is the city’s first employing Automatic Train Operation (ATO) GoA4, the highest level of train autonomy. By 2035, Chengdu plans to have no less than 35 working metro lines over 1,666 kilometres.
Slightly nearer to home in our neighbouring Shandong Province, the city of Qingdao opened China’s longest under-sea metro tunnel on 24 December. Line 8, together with a northern section of Line 1, added almost 70 kilometres to the city’s metro network.
Elsewhere, capital of Shanxi Province, Taiyuan, received its first metro line on 26 December, one designed for GoA4 driverless operation, reported Railway Gazette.
In Shanghai, also on 26 December, Line 18 and an extension to Line 10 both commenced operations. On the same day were also opened new lines in Hefei, capital of Anhui Province; Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi Province; and Zhengzhou, capital of Henan Province.
A couple of days later, tourists planning a visit to see the famed Terracotta Warriors in Xi’an had their trip made a whole lot easier. The city’s Line 9, designed to serve the Emperor Qinshihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum, enables a journey time from downtown Xi’an to the museum of only 39 minutes.
Other highlights in the raft of openings included those in Zhejiang Province, where the capital city of Hangzhou finally received not one, but two, metro lines, serving Xiaoshan International Airport; the third phase of Line 1 and the brand new Line 7, both opened on 30 December.
Finally, the last day of 2020 for China’s rapidly growing urban rail network was marked by the opening of several extensions to existing lines. Two commenced operations in Chongqing Municipality, while the nation’s capital, Beijing, also opened up two extensions, but upped Chongqing by inaugurating a second tram route on the same day.
Here in our very own Nanjing, however, 2020 was marked by no developments for the city’s metro system whatsoever. With this year already now scarred by yesterday’s accident, authorities will do well to ensure that at least the fully automated Nanjing Line 7 opens this year, on schedule.
